


fratricide

by orange_8_hands



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Season/Series 08, Alternate Vessels, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Apocalypse Fix-it, Do-Over, Episode: s06e21 Let It Bleed, Episode: s07e13 The Slice Girls, F/M, Gen, Isolation, Mind Manipulation, Necklaces, Purgatory, Suburbia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 04:45:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8876551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orange_8_hands/pseuds/orange_8_hands
Summary: There is only one story for angels.





	1. [offer]

**Author's Note:**

> this is the [second fic](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1114434/chapters/2244172) I've written inspired by (re-)reading [quigonejinn's works](http://archiveofourown.org/users/quigonejinn/pseuds/quigonejinn), though this one is an even more blatant rip off of their writing style, with about a tenth of their skill. also I recently got reminded about my own tags about [Emma's necklace](http://oranges8hands.tumblr.com/post/95765431443/magen-was-here-i-guess-in-the-end-all-i-could). couple of lines lifted directly from 7.13 & 6.21. 
> 
> **cw** (though half of this stuff can be filed under "implication" more than "graphic," because this list makes it look somewhat worse than it is): death, torture, stalking/rape culture, one-sided romantic/sexual stuff between (unknown about) siblings, underage masturbation, loneliness led hallucinations/aftermath of long term isolation, family as cult, rape, mind wipes/violations, vessel consent, and (not really) car accidents

i.

When Emma is five (hours in time, years in physicality) her mother clips a necklace around her neck. It is a heart, golden, slightly warm from where it was cupped in her palm. She adjusts the bow in her hair. She kisses her check. She helps roll her suitcase to the door. She says goodbye, and does not whisper in her daughter's ear.

She does not say _I love you_. She does not say, _be brave, baby girl_.

There are two women watching. One of them has been around for a long time, and was there when Lydia was five (hours in time, years in physicality), and walked out the door with her own suitcase, and told by her own mother goodbye.

(Does Madeline remember Lydia wearing that necklace too? It was sixteen years ago, and their tribe is strong. There have been a lot of little girls walked to doors, and give into her care. How much does she remember about each, when it has been sixteen years, and a lot of little girls, and everyone is passed from one woman to another in different clothes? Lydia, if she would consciously admit why the thought was comforting, believes she remember just enough to know each girl by name, and to know they were passed from one woman to her, and to know sometimes they are given accessories.)

When Emma is seventeen (days in time, almost years in physicality) a creature - long nails, sharp teeth, feet that scent the air with blood - tries to rip off her necklace. Emma has one bronze dagger and one silver axe. She has superior strength, when compared to a human, and the strength of a seventeen year old girl, when compared to almost everything else. Still, by the end Emma has her necklace and her life, and the creature - blood pouring from the amputation of head, hands, and feet - has neither.

Emma cleans her weapons on the grass, using the creature's dirty hair to wipe off what Purgatory's ground can't. When there is a howling in the distance, Emma starts to run.

 

ii.

Amazons have human fathers and Amazonian mothers. Between birth and completion into the tribe, they occupy a biological state of in between. This state lasts three days, or - if you're Emma - forever.

iii.

Emma is not all together human, but she still anthropomorphizes Purgatory into something friendlier than wet bark and long shadows. Purgatory is never-ending, and exists in a perpetual state of grey. It is mostly dirt, and trees, and rivers, and rocks. Sometimes the sun sparkles through the canopy of leaves. Sometimes blood shines against the grey, bright like it is the only color to exist. 

There are less beings per square mile than assumed. Sometimes Emma can go days without seeing anyone. She can go days, and she gets to keep breathing, and it is a genuine miracle -

(Emma uses the phrase miracle very lightly. If pressed, she may say it has something to do with angels, but that is all the detail to be found about a faith not hers. Miracles, Emma would say, if she had someone to say it to, are not divine.)

\- just a genuine miracle. Sometimes she can go weeks without seeing anyone, and she gets to keep breathing, and it becomes hard to remember why -

The trees in Purgatory look like trees, except when they don't. Sometimes, it will be weeks, and the trees will stop looking like trees, and Emma will wait very politely for Purgatory to show her the path among them, and then she will find a being, who may or may not try to kill her.

 

iv.

When Emma is five (hours in time, years in physicality) her mother clips a necklace around her neck. It is a heart, golden, slightly warm from where it was cupped in her palm. Before that, Lydia picks up a battered flask and drops it into her trash can. She takes two steps away, turns around, picks it back up from the trash, and puts it into an empty drawer. Later, she will say, "It was so beat up and old, I almost tossed it."

 

v. 

Only some of the beings try to kill her. Emma rarely makes the first move, sometimes because she is not sure she can win, and mostly because she cannot tell if the being will be friendly with her for only part of their conversation, or all of it. Surprisingly, a lot of the time it is for all of it.

There is not much to do in Purgatory. There is rocks, and dirt, and rivers, and trees, and sometimes there are beings Emma can talk to. Emma will listen to gossip about creatures she does not know, and stories about beings she does not know, and feelings about monsters she does not know. Every time, Emma is a little grateful, because Purgatory is made up of rocks and dirt and trees and rivers, but there are less beings per square mile than assumed.

Honestly, talking to someone feels like a genuine mir -

 

vi.

Emma has two weapons. One is a bronze dagger, old, symmetrical, slightly blunted when she was handed it before knocking on a motel room. The other is a silver axe, cobbled together with more efficiency the second time. Having any weapons could only improve her chances of breathing, but if asked Emma would say her favorite was the axe. It combined elemental weakness, sharp edges, reach, and the ability to be thrown; many things were still allergic to silver, here in Purgatory, and many more could be hurt with sharp edges. The axe was her favorite, but of course she wouldn't toss away the dagger, because weapons could only improve her chances of breathing. She has superior strength, when compared to a human, and the strength of a seventeen year old girl, when compared to almost everything else; she needs all the help she can get.

 

vii.

Amazons are a complex historical, societal, religious, and biological species that follow cyclical patterns throughout generations. Sixteen years ago, Lydia was five (hours in time, years in physicality) and sent off with Madeline. She had a necklace, golden, slightly warm from her mother's hand. The first ritual involved a small amount of selected knowledge, wisdom written in the flesh of a tribe member sacrificed for this very reason, given to each girl to swallow so the knowledge could be released. The second ritual started immediately afterwards, and involved a branding iron and the beginning of a promise of what they would be. The third ritual involved a bronze dagger, sharp edged so that it can slice through fathers' hands, feet, and neck. The fourth ritual involved blood, as did the fifth.

Amazons have seventy-two hours before the contract with Harmonia will no longer hold.

When Emma is five (hours in time, years in physicality), she is given a necklace, heart-shaped, golden, slightly warm from where it rested in her mother's palm. Amazons have a small amount of selected knowledge passed to them, once they are taken from their mothers and before they are branded. Flesh of flesh, swallowed wisdom of generations; in the old days, each tribe had to offer a sacrifice for every birthing cycle, and because the purpose of survival is of the whole, they were happy to do it.

Still, refrigeration and the postal service meant one sacrifice could go a long way these days. Even Amazons modernized.

 

viii.

There are many beings in Purgatory, though less assumed per square mile, and sometimes Emma will find one and chat with it. Most times, the being will wish Emma good luck, and say goodbye. Sometimes -

Amazons have superior strength, when compared to humans. There are no humans in Purgatory, so it seems like Emma has the strength of a seventeen year old girl, when compared to almost anything else. She sharpens her dagger and her axe, as best she can, and when she comes across a being, she doesn't make the first move very often, mostly because she cannot tell if the being will be friendly with her for only part of their conversation, or all of it, until the conversation is over. 

Sometimes -

Emma occupies a biological state of in between. She has Amazonian knowledge, passed flesh into flesh, and a brand on her wrist. She has a dagger that was not blooded until she entered Purgatory, and because of that, there are three rituals she never completed, and though arguably it is because she is in Purgatory, when seventy-two hours pass it means she did not and could not complete the contract her foremother made with Harmonia.

She has never had superior smell. Purgatory smells like wet bark, and dirt, and sometimes dead bodies, until either something else eats them, or Purgatory's ground swallows them up. Sometimes even Emma can smell blood, though not as well as other beings that call Purgatory home. Even most beings, however, can just smell that blood is blood, and not anything else.

Emma occupies a biological state of in between, and because seventy-two hours passed her blood still smells almost human, even though she is not. A very fraction of beings can smell a whole history of things in blood, and so sometimes -

Emma has two weapons. She does not often make the first move, mostly because she can not tell if the being will be friendly with her for only part of their conversation, or all of it. Every time she talks to someone, it feels like a genuine miracle.  
      

ix.

As Madeline said, courage is everything.

 

x.

Sometimes, it will be weeks, and the trees will stop looking like trees, and Emma will wait very politely for Purgatory to show her the path among them, and then she will find a being, who may or may not try to kill her.

This time, it is a being shaped like a woman, wearing a suit. Her brown hair is pulled into a tight bun. She has no visible weapons, and is too clean to have been in Purgatory for any length of time. If Emma looks at her from the corner of her eye, it looks like she's leaking bright light.

"Hello," Emma says, when she sees the woman looking at her. It feels like the woman can see her soul, and is happy Emma is in front of her. Emma is happy too.

After all, every time she talks to someone, it feels like a genuine miracle.

 


	2. [acceptance]

i.

If you don't remember something, did it happen?

 

 

ii.

Ben's mom is in a car accident when he is fourteen. Ben was in the car, and after the man who hit them leaves, his mother clutches his hand and says, "Are you sure your ok, Ben?" 

And then, a few minutes later, after Ben assures her again that he is - "Dammit, he didn't leave his insurance info."

 

iii.

In every universe but a very, very few, something remembers Lisa and Ben, and comes back for them. In every universe but a very, very few, Lisa and Ben die screaming, and are never quite sure why.

 

iv.

After a few minutes of small talk, Jane asks, "So where's the boyfriend?"

Jane lived in Cicero, Indiana for eleven years. She lived on the block where Lisa lived, and went to the gym Lisa held her yoga classes in, and often ended up at the closest supermarket around the same time as Lisa, who did most of her food shopping after her last Monday class, which was the same hour Jane had between dropping her daughter off at guitar lessons and picking her son up from art class. In one of those weird coincidences of life, Jane is in Lansing, Michigan visiting her brother, and bumps into Lisa as she enters the restaurant, which Lisa is exiting after having just eaten with a potential investor. Both have places to be, so they keep the conversation short, and Jane asks, "So where's the boyfriend?"

Lisa was dating a man named Matt when she was in a car accident, four months ago. It wasn't for very long, but she was surprised by how he disappeared from her life. Most of the time, when men disappeared like that, it was because she told them she had a son. In this case, Matt already knew, and didn't seem to mind very much. Before that, she had a string of first dates (and a few one time hook-ups), but it had been several years since anyone serious. After Matt, she had barely had that.

"Uh, who?" Lisa asks. It was more than a hour drive to get back to Battle Creek, and she likes to be home when Ben comes home - when it was possible - since the accident. It didn't make sense, because it was a car accident, but something about her new home - and they'd only been living there for eight months, and she's still not sure why she moved - made her nervous. A little spike of adrenaline, every time she was on the living room couch.

Jane is not very good at names. "Devin?" Her voice has that underlining edge that most voices get, when they remember very obvious things, and the other party does not. "The guy you were living with?"

"Okay," Lisa says, because Jane is confusing her with someone else, and will probably be embarrassed if Lisa points it out. And then, both women feeling very off balance, make noises about the time, and promise to call soon, and go their separate ways. Jane can't help but make a strange face when they say goodbye though, and Lisa - God help her - makes one back.

 

v.

[If you remember most of Castiel's actions, you will remember he is not very thorough when he completes a job. Arguably, he gets that from his friends.]

 

vi.

When Ben is sixteen, he gets a job serving frozen yogurt. The uniform consists of bright green t-shirts, and even brighter green hats. He gives up most of his weekends, and gets sick of the free samples he's allowed by the second month. He unfortunately sees a lot of classmates while wearing the bright green t-shirt and hat, and in some ways even more unfortunately not a lot of them recognize him. They have been in Lansing for over a year, and Ben is a little more quiet than he used to be, before the car accident that gave him some slight bruising, and a sensitive cheek, and not very much damage to the car.

There is one girl who comes in. There are many girls who come in, and plenty of them catch his eye, but there is one girl in particular. She is pretty, but that is not what catches his eye. It is the way she keeps one wrist turned downwards at all times, and flinches if the other customers make too much noise, and slides her shoes against the floor. It is mostly in the way every time he glances at her, she is already watching him.

She has yet to eat a single spoonful of froyo.

 

vii.

The car accident isn't a big deal. No damage to the car, and Ben has gotten hurt worse after playing with his friends. There is a brief moment when his mom doesn't wake up, and she is admitted to a bed, but then she does, and all her scans are clear. They don't even have time to call her sister, who is her emergency contact number.

So when the guy who hit them says his apologies, his mom says -

 

viii.

He tells his mom about the girl. That there is a girl, and she comes in every day, and he catches her watching him. He doesn't think she likes froyo.

"Is she pretty?" his mom asks, because the way Ben tells the story makes it seem like that is the kind of question she should ask.

"Yes," Ben says, truthfully. "But that's not why she caught my eye."

"Well, do you like her?" Lisa sticks the chicken into the oven, turns to face her son head on. He is running his fingers over the tiny marks that make up a ten year old kitchen table. Ben always had trouble staying still, when he was a kid, though since the car accident -

"Sure," Ben says, a little less truthfully.

 

ix.

 - "We're okay, so that's what's important, right?"

 

x.

The girl comes in every two days, like clockwork. It is not hard to figure out Ben's schedule, especially because she is a pretty, apparently age appropriate girl, and Ben's coworker thinks he's doing Ben a favor.

She has about three outfits, she rotates in and out of. Ben isn't much for fashion, but he sees the girl all the time, and it is easy to see she has about three outfits, that she layers differently. She doesn't smell, and the clothes always look clean, but she has three outfits, that she mixes and matches.

She doesn't talk much. Sometimes she smiles faintly, as thanks. She has an intense stare, but it doesn't remind him at all of girls who like boys. He's not quite sure what it reminds him of, and since his job involves a lot of wiping down tables and standing behind a register waiting for people, he thinks about it. He thinks about it a lot, sometimes when she is there, and he has yet to come to a conclusion. He's a little more knowledgeable about what the staring does to him.

Originally, it made him hard.

He's pretty sure he didn't notice her the first time she came in, maybe the first few times. A lot of teenagers walk through the door, especially on his weekend shifts, because next door is a movie theater, and walking distance away is the mall, and there is only so much for teenagers to legally do in Lansing, Michigan. He recognizes most of the kids from his high school, but none from the other one.

When he first notices her staring at him, he smiles. She's there another ten minutes, and he spends a lot of time trying to think of something witty to say, because she's pretty, and looking at him, and he thinks he needs all the help to counteract the bright green. He doesn't say anything when she leaves though, except the standard _have a nice night_. That night, he uses his hand and the mattress below him, and he thinks about her lips and his dick and her breasts, and the next night, he does the same.

After a week though -

Maybe it reminds him of animal shows. Something a little desperate, something a little mean, and Ben is not sure how to explain why she gives him goosebumps, because she's a pretty girl, around his age, and also technically she hasn't done anything, except pay for froyo she doesn't eat, and watch him. Even when she's alone in the store with him, she doesn't say anything, except sometimes she says _thanks_. Sometimes she smiles thanks, and she looks fairly normal when she smiles, but she doesn't smile very often.

One day, she's there, and also, there's a woman in a grey suit.


	3. [pride]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a little mean/AU to Naomi in this. Then again, I didn't make her Cas's _mother_ , so it's definitely not the worse thing to happen to her in fandom.

i.

In an alternate universe, John Winchester had only two sons. In an alternate universe, Cassie Robinson gave birth to a boy and Lisa Braeden did not. In an alternate universe, Lydia recognized the tattoo on the investment banker's chest, and made up a story about why she couldn't do this, and in another alternate universe, the man listened when she said no. In an alternate universe, Lisa Braeden didn't have to lie about who her son's father was when she said _not you_.

There is a universe where this ends happily. 

ii.

Naomi is the only one left. If she has to get her hands dirty, so be it. 

Dean Winchester has at least two children. One of them is not quite human.

 

iii.

The best angels share a lot of similarities with upper management.

 _Best_ is perhaps the wrong word. _Most talented_ sounds like a singing competition; _most dedicated_ sounds like angels were not built to serve faith, and there is a whole department in Heaven to make sure that is not true.

Also upper management suggests there aren't a lot of different industries, filled with workers who tell each other things like "the worst fail upwards" to describe how their bosses became their bosses, and that is the absolute nicest version of that refrain. Anyone in upper management will tell you they are very important, and anyone below upper management will laugh in your face. And laughing into your face is not something angels would handle gracefully. 

Uriel was arguably the funniest angel in _all_ the garrisons, but his humor didn't provoke _that_ kind of response.

 

iv.

Zachariah was a well created angel. In the end, he failed his mission, and therefore earned his death, but still. As the people in the world he built for Dean Smith would say, he hustled. He tried new things. He wasn't afraid to get a little creative.

 

v.

 _Creative_ may be pushing it too. Angels aren't very creative. There is a long history of angels changing reality to make humans do something. Zachariah trying out different worlds to make Dean act correctly wasn't outside the realm of past experience. Gabriel did it too, with similar results.

The problem was, for all angels thought of humans the way humans thought of cockroaches, they continued to follow the faulty assumption that the material wasn't the problem, the treatment of it was.

Which was ridiculous. Even angels aren't built right all the time.

That is why Naomi exists.

vi.

If there wasn't an apocalypse but an _end of days_ , if they really wanted everything _gone_... cockroaches would not survive. Nothing would. That is the _point_.

 

vii.

Everyone has a favorite work story. When your work is your life, you probably have several.

Naomi's is about an angel named Reiiel. Reiiel was given the simple task of destroying a tree grove. The tree grove was near a small village, but that was legitimately irrelevant to her opposition to the order, which already put Reiiel leagues ahead of most of the angels Naomi took apart to fix.

Reiiel took issue with the order because the order served no purpose. It was a tree grove; it was not hiding important items, nor could it be made into important weapons, nor did it serve as a strategic spot in a battlefield they were raging. The trees were not special. They did not even grow fruit, which at least could be said to be a sore spot. It was just a random tree grove, and Reiiel was ordered to destroy it, enough so it would be gone, but not so much that nothing would grow there again. The order was so foreign to sense, Reiiel originally thought she misheard, even if angels can't mishear, and thought her commander meant the village, because humans were something angels had been killing for any number of years at this point, whereas tree groves were very much not.

A lot of angels scream when they are put in front of Naomi, so this suggests nothing of Reiiel's bravery that she did too. The reason this is Naomi's favorite story is because early in the proceedings, Reiiel tried to reason with Naomi.

"But there's no point," she said, "You see that too, right? The order had no point."

Naomi does not have fun, but if she did, finding the flip to switch on and off the desire to ask _why_ would have been a lot of fun. Before Reiiel, she didn't even know angels came with that.  

 

viii.

Also, afterwards, Reiiel destroyed the tree grove. Naomi does excellent work.

 

ix.

Despite her work, Naomi did not think of torture as the best option. Torture, especially physical, was fleeting, and did not work until it did, at which point it stopped causing the reaction it was supposed to cause, and instead created a whole new set of problems.

You could torture someone into obedience. It was easy, if time consuming. It wasn't quite what Naomi did - torture was a byproduct of fixing broken pieces, not used to create those broken pieces - but she understood the basics, and used them at various times. Angels had been around for a long time, and Naomi had done a little bit of everything under the sun, and even beyond that; besides, while Naomi found torture to be inelegant, her bosses loved it.

Naomi, when given a freer hand on the reigns, preferred to pit her mind against someone else. Sort of what Zachariah and Gabriel did, but much better, and without props. At heart, Naomi had to know where to create the crack, and then open it enough to root around inside. When given the opportunity, why would Naomi not prefer this method over everything else?

 

x.

"Hello, Ben," Naomi says.

Next to her, Emma does not fiddle with her necklace.


End file.
